What are your views about Switzerland — Swiss banking and the Swiss Franc — Der Untergang, ie, The Downfall?
Dear ATCA Open and Philanthropia Friends Remember the old banking slogan, “Any port in a storm, Switzerland in a hurricane!” Well no more, and the slogan needs replacing. We at ATCA never understood that phrase in its entirety because Switzerland is landlocked and not subject to hurricanes. However, its social and geographical insularity may be part of the problem in this age of dynamic risk allocation and shaky banks. Switzerland’s proud banking nation was forced this week to provide a 6 billion Swiss franc equity injection into its largest bank, UBS, along with the separation into a distinct entity of some 60 billion Swiss francs in toxic loans from the bank by way of a lifeline. UBS has posted bigger losses than any European bank from the credit crisis. What does this mean precisely when the other European banks in need of recapitalisation have received the finance in exactly the opposite way. Take the example of what the British prime minister Gordon Brown did. The state took share
